Paintball is a popular competitive game in which players attempt to eliminate other players by hitting them with projectiles filled with paint. The game therefore requires players to move and react very quickly, both to hit other players and to avoid being hit. In order to successfully hit another player, who is usually a fast-moving target, it is advantageous to be able to shoot several projectiles in rapid succession. It is therefore advantageous to have a virtually unlimited supply of paintballs to avoid running out of ammunition during a game.
Paintballs were often stored in a hopper mounted on the paintball marker and manually refilled once the hopper emptied, but this procedure is time-consuming, wasteful of paintballs that are not cleanly poured into the hopper, and leaves a player defenseless during the refilling process.
Players are therefore looking for the flexibility and speed of a “magazine” type of system, in which the player carries disposable or replaceable pods or magazines full of paintballs about his person, such as in his vest or pants pockets, on a belt, harness or holster, or in another carrying system. The magazine is inserted into a receiver carried on the marker, and the paintballs are either immediately or gradually fed into the marker for shooting. When a magazine has been emptied, it is ejected or otherwise removed from the receiver and replaced with a full magazine. Examples of such paintball loading mechanisms are shown in U.S. Patent Publication No. 2008/0047535 to Handel, U.S. Pat. No. 7,270,120 to Broersma et al., and Applicant's own U.S. Pat. No. 8,302,586.
One potential drawback with these systems is the degree of certainty available, specifically that the user be able to ensure that the magazine has been securely inserted, in the correct place, and with the proper alignment, so that it is certain that the pod is securely attached and won't fall out at an inopportune time, and so that the pod correctly and easily feeds its load of paintballs into the marker. For example, Handel uses a flat two-guide rail mechanism, while in Broersma the magazine simply slides across the top of the marker, relying on a friction-based attachment mechanism to secure the magazine. While Applicant's earlier patent includes a locking mechanism and is designed to provide a positive lock that can easily be felt by the player, it may be preferable to provide an even more secure configuration, and one that may be simpler to produce and operate, with fewer external moving pieces, and a simpler connection to a receiver.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a paintball loading and feeding assembly that overcomes the foregoing disadvantages.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a system in which an emptied or partially emptied paintball magazine can be easily, quickly and securely replaced with a full magazine.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a receiver for a paintball marker that will accept a full paintball magazine and efficiently hold and funnel the paintballs contained in the magazine to the marker, while minimizing the flow of paintballs back towards the magazine. The receiver may also contain an area to accommodate excess paintballs away from an inserted magazine to avoid breakage of paintballs that do not properly enter, or accidentally exit from, the marker.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a replacement paintball magazine for a rapid paintball marker loading and feeding system that can be easily assembled and disassembled for maintaining and cleaning the magazine.
These and other objects of the invention will be better understood by reference to the detailed description of the preferred embodiments which follows. Note that the objects referred to above are statements of what motivated the invention rather than promises. Not all of the objects are necessarily met by all embodiments of the invention described below or by the invention defined by each of the claims.